I have been trying to make a generator, which must be crank started. I added the WoodenSwitch activator to act as a lever that needs to be cranked three times before a lamp lights up and an ElectricalSwitch02 activator can be flicked to turn on the power.

All of this is controlled by a quest, and it works the way I want it - apart from the fact that none of the activators (WoodenSwitch and ElectricalSwitch02) play their animations when they are activated, they just stay stationary. Should there be a playgroup command in the script, and in that case: how would I go about to set it up?

I'm not sure if it will work like a door, but you can try using the "SetOpenState 1" command to activate the open animation and "SetOpenState 0" for the close.

The wooden switch (which is not used in the game) is activated with the open and close animations. So, setting the open state, as pkleiss said, will work on it. Open is 'down' and Close is 'up'.
The electrical switch is the same.

You might also just try the 'activate' command. That should make the object 'open' and 'close' automatically without calling the 'setOpenState' function.

Begin OnActivate  ;your script   ActivateEnd

Works perfectly now, thanks to both of you!